Homeworld Bound
by The Nerdinator
Summary: AKA Stevenbomb 3.5. Garnet issues her first prophecy in millennia. Steven's universe is turned upside-down as the Crystal Gems go on adventures that culminate in the final battle for Earth. AU because Rebecca Sugar keeps ruining it for us.
1. Garnet's Prophecy

**AN: Sooo...I just found out Steven Universe is on hiatus until September. Which gives me the perfect opportunity to make this fanfiction. It's AU because it contains fan theories the producers have jossed.**

 **Seriously, Rebecca? You just HAD to have Pearl and Garnet have a falling-out. Not cool!**

 **Anyway, the first chapter's going to tie up the loose ends left after the last Stevenbomb. And then some.**

 **Enjoy! ~ T. Nerdinator**

* * *

"C'mon, Pearl, eat it! Pleeeeeeeease?" Steven begged, holding out a strawberry-frosted doughnut.

"I'm sorry, Steven, I know it's your birthday, but for me eating is just...unnatural." Pearl shuddered at the thought.

"Wimp," Amethyst commented. "Am I right, guys?"

"I wouldn't say that," Sapphire said. Garnet had unfused for the occasion, and while Sapphire had completely forgiven Pearl for the "Sardonyx incident" two weeks prior, Ruby had not, so the latter sulked in the corner a little.

"You should always try something new," Greg remarked. "Besides, I happen to know that was Rose's favorite kind of doughnut."

Pearl relented. "Fine, I'll eat it." She took the doughnut from Steven's hand and took a bite. She chewed, swallowed nervously, and repeated until the doughnut was gone.

"There. That wasn't so bad," Steven said.

"Eating it was the least of my concerns," Pearl said, slightly nauseated. "I'm more worried about what will happen eighteen hours from now."

Amethyst giggled. "What's so funny?" Steven asked.

"In eighteen hours Pearl's gonna have to-" Amethyst snorted - "take a dump."

She and Steven doubled over laughing.

"You two are so immature," Pearl said bluntly.

"They're young. Let them be kids," Sapphire said. The doorbell rang. "I'll get it." She got up and walked over to the door...and right into a metal pole that was holding up the ceiling, face-first.

 _CLANK!_

Sapphire fell over. There was a puff of smoke from under her bangs, and the corundum groaned in pain, clutching her face.

"Sapphire!" Ruby cried, running over to check on her girlfriend.

"Maybe _I_ should get the door," Greg said quietly.

"Please do," Pearl told him.

Greg opened it. "Oh, hey Connie."

"Hello, Mr. Universe. Is Steven here? I was going to give him this extra ticket to the premiere screening of Dogcopter 4."

" _Dogcopter 4 is out?!_ " Steven raced over. "Thank you so much, Connie!" he exclaimed as he was given the ticket.

"No problem," the Indian girl replied. Then she noticed two small gems she had never seen before, and that Garnet was missing. "Are they Ruby and Sapphire?"

"Yep," Steven said. "Ruby and Sapphire, meet Connie."

"We can't talk now!" Ruby cried. "Sapphire's hurt!"

"I'm fine, Ruby!" Sapphire got up. Her bangs fell away from her face, revealing two brilliant blue eyes, instead of the single eye Steven had seen on her face before.

All the other Gems (Steven included) gasped.

Sapphire was confused as to why they were, well, confused, until she felt her face with her hands. "Oh, great."

"I thought you had _one_ eye!" Pearl exclaimed.

"Sapphires can fuse their eyes together," the blue Gem explained. "Otherwise we can't use our future vision."

"You sure about that?" Amethyst asked. "Because when I was growing up in the Kindergarten, I met some sapphires, and they could use their future vision when they had two eyes. They only did the cyclops thing to increase accuracy."

"That isn't what Blue-" Sapphire froze. "Of course!" she yelled, stomping her foot, ice forming where she had stepped. "That is _exactly_ something Blue Diamond would do. Tell me I was a freak if I didn't do something that _would_ make me a freak! Why have I been so _stupid_?!"

"You're not stupid," Ruby said. "You were tricked. I believe the humans call that particular type 'trolling'."

Sapphire looked at her lover, uneasy.

"You know, maybe keeping your eyes unfused isn't such a bad idea. We _have_ seen that there are problems with using future vision all the time, you know."

"Yeah," Steven added, "and maybe you can predict things like how you are now. You won't know if you don't try."

Sapphire sighed, took a deep breath, and focused on her future vision. After a few seconds, she said, "I see something. Steven, one of your favorite things will come back." Her eyes widened. "I _can_ do it!" she exclaimed.

"I knew you could," Ruby said, laughing a little. The two small gems embraced. There was a flash of light, and after it dissipated, Garnet stood in their place. Instead of three different-colored eyes, though, she now had two eyes, both purple. From force of habit, Garnet summoned her sunglasses again.

"Thank you, Steven," Garnet said, rumpling the hybrid's hair. "And thank you, Amethyst, for giving me the knowledge I needed. My future vision is much more stable now."

"Eh, it was nothin'," Amethyst replied, shrugging.

"And Pearl?"

Pearl looked at her.

"I forgive you for the Sardonyx incident."

"You...do?" Pearl asked, very nervous.

"Lying to me was wrong," Garnet told her, "but I had no idea your self-esteem issues were that bad. If I had known that you had been mistreated by all those Gems just because you were a pearl who could think for herself, and believed fusion with someone close to you was the only way to make you feel better..."

"How did you learn that?" Pearl asked.

"Rainbow Quartz told me."

"But...she's gone."

Garnet laughed. "Believe me, you know nothing about the mindset of a fusion." Then she did something surprising - she gave Pearl a hug, which the latter had not known she needed, but enjoyed it anyway.

"Bo-ring!" Amethyst called out, killing the mood. "Let's watch some TV, Stevenman."

"It's getting late, though," Pearl said, breaking her embrace with Garnet. "Steven should be getting ready for bed by now."

"There's always time for Crying Breakfast Friends!" Steven said.

"You know, I think I'm finally getting the hang of that show," Greg commented. "Would you like to watch with us, Connie?"

"I have to be getting home soon, but I can stay for a few more minutes," Connie replied.

Everyone gathered around the TV (except Lion, who was outside relieving himself). Steven turned it on, but just as he reached the channel CBF was on, the screen (a shot of a crying waffle and an equally upset pear) abruptly switched to a news bulletin.

"Breaking news," the anchorman said. "The company that makes Lion Lickers was permanently shut down when the treats were found to contain fifty-eight toxic chemicals - all of them known carcinogens."

"What's a carcinogen?" Steven wanted to know.

"It's a chemical that causes cancer," Connie explained.

"What's cancer?"

"Maybe some other time."

The anchorman continued. "This, coinciding with its purchase by Japanese investors, has brought the Cookie Cat ice cream sandwich company back into business. Cookie Cats will return to store shelves next Friday."

Steven turned off the TV and sat there, taking it all in.

"Steven? Are you okay?" Pearl asked.

"THIS IS THE BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!" Steven whooped, going starry-eyed. "It must be what Sapphire predicted!"

"It would seem that way," Garnet noted. "My future vision isn't very specific, but at least now I'm only getting one scenario at a time." She froze.

"Uh, G?" Amethyst asked.

Suddenly, Garnet's entire body began to glow reddish-purple. She levitated into the air. Her glasses fell off, revealing that her eyes were glowing, too.

She spoke, in a voice that was a combination of hers, Ruby's, and Sapphire's:

 _Old foes liberated. Old foes redeemed._

 _Old allies who are not what they seem._

 _Old secrets, great power at their beck and call._

 _And the old carbon crystal who started it all._

Garnet then went back to normal. She picked up her sunglasses, dusted them off, and put them back on.

"What. Was. That?" Greg asked.

"A prophecy," Garnet replied. "I haven't issued one in five thousand Earth years."

"A prophecy?" Pearl asked, suddenly worried. "You mean..."

"Yes. Something big is going to happen. I don't know what exactly, but it will change everything."

Silence.

"Well...I gotta go. Bye guys," Connie said, walking out the front door.

"Amethyst, will you take Steven upstairs?" Pearl asked.

Amethyst complied. As she and Steven went up the steps (while Greg left to return to his van), Steven asked, "So there's more than one of each gem?"

"Yup. We each have a number, too, to specify who is who. Technically, I'm Amethyst #80088," the purple quartz replied.

"And sapphires can fuse their eyes together...what about their noses?"

"They don't have noses."

"WHAT?! But how can they smell things?!"

"I never said they didn't have nostrils."


	2. Identity Lost

**Somewhere off the coast of Bermuda...**

Deep underwater, a large figure rested on the sea floor. While she looked placid, inside her brain was a desperate struggle for control.

* * *

"Let me out, brat!" Jasper grunted.

"No! I won't let you," Lapis retorted.

"Why do you care? Those Crystal traitors locked you up in a mirror for five Earth millennia. You hate them, and you know it."

"Steven's with them. I don't want to hurt him," Lapis said softly. "And I'm not even sure it was any of those three who imprisoned me, now that I think about it..."

"Rose Quartz is an enemy to Homeworld."

"Jasper, his name is Steven. He's not Rose." She paused, then asked, "Do you think he could be a Gem/human hybrid, and Rose is his mother?"

"Preposterous. Gems can't reproduce like pathetic carbon-based lifeforms do. Why do you care about him so much, anyway?"

"He kinda freed me from the mirror..."

"SILENCE!" roared a third voice. Jasper and Lapis were mentally slammed into each other, head-first. Their consciousnesses were knocked unconscious, by none other than Malachite herself.

"I am sick and tired of you two arguing all the time and not letting me do anything!" she snapped, bearing her fangs. "Not anymore. Today, I take control of my _own_ body!"

* * *

Malachite awoke. She used her hydrokinesis to dissolve the chains holding her down. Free, she began to swim towards the US.

Her mission was clear in her mind: destroy the Crystal Gems.

Beginning with that treacherous Rose Quartz.


	3. New Teammate

**The next morning, 10:30 AM**

Peridot woke up. Getting up from the moss she had spent the night on, she surveyed her surroundings. She was in a relatively large forest, with a fair number of trees. Birds sang, butterflies flittered around, and the extraterrestrial organism sighed happily.

When Peridot had landed in the forest the week before, the first thing she did was to retreat to her gem and try to regenerate her foot, something she had never needed to do. But when she did, her arms and legs did not go into her gem with her.

Suddenly, she had remembered something from the very first moment of her life: as soon as she had been born, she was struck with a destabilizer and forced back into her gem. In the middle of her regeneration process, synthetic lower arms and legs were fit over her limbs, preventing her natural ones from forming completely. But now, Peridot had natural arms and legs, which included proper hands instead of floating fingers.

Peridot did not care if her superiors found out about that. Or if her superiors found her at all. The time she had spent in the woods led her to realize what exactly the Crystal Gems were fighting for: the natural beauty that surrounded her, something the Diamond Sisters who controlled Homeworld with three iron fists could not understand.

Peridot looked at her robonoids, who she had transported there to keep her company.

"I can't spend all my time here," she said to the voiceless machines. "I should go and interact with the humans. Or at least, try to; I've heard things about what they do to lifeforms not native to this planet."

The robonoids said nothing. But one of them gave a small movement almost like a nod of approval. Peridot smiled, and walked out of the forest, ten little robots following her. An eleventh, slightly gold-tinted one which Peridot did not notice peeked out from its hiding place behind a tree and quickly scooted itself behind the herd.

* * *

Peridot arrived at the beach. She marveled at what she saw: pristine blue water, beautiful white sand, a short purple woman playing frisbee with a short chubby tween - wait, what?

"Crystal Gems," Peridot said to herself, surprised, but not really. She quickly scooted herself into a bush. The robonoids followed suit.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the beach, Steven and Amethyst happily played a little game of catch with the frisbee, while Pearl paced and Garnet sat on the ground meditating.

"Go long, Steven!" Amethyst shouted.

Steven did so. Amethyst ran backwards, arms outstretched. "I got it...I got it..." she said, not paying attention to where she was going. She ran into the bush Peridot was hiding in, and both Gems fell out in a tangle of limbs. As a further insult, the frisbee hit Amethyst on the head. "Ow."

"What the - PERIDOT!" Pearl exclaimed. She, Garnet, and Steven rushed over while Amethyst got herself untangled - and immediately realized who she had run into.

"Stay back!" Garnet snapped, summoning her gauntlets.

Peridot gulped.

"Guys, Gems shouldn't be fighting each other," Steven said, which was followed by "Hey Peridot, what happened to your hands?"

"I regenerated. Long story," the olivine replied.

"Are you gonna hurt us? Or Earth?"

"No. I changed my mind about this planet and you."

The Gems looked at her, uncertain.

"Are you telling the truth?" Pearl asked.

"Because if you aren't..." Garnet added, pounding her fists together.

"Look, I've realized how wrong I've been. The Gems on Homeworld are monsters. Whoever this 'Rose Quartz' is, she was a good person."

Garnet relaxed her arms a little. She was about to ask the specifics of Peridot's decision when the ocean bubbled and churned, and a 20-foot-tall, green creature with darker green stripes, six arms (four of which served as legs), four eyes, and a mouth full of sharp teeth fixed into an evil grin rose out of the water.

"Malachite," Steven whispered.

"Well," Malachite growled. "If it isn't the Crystal traitors. Thought you could rebel against the Diamond Sisters and get away with it? Think again." She summoned Jasper's helmet and Lapis' wings of water, combining them into a pair of demonic-looking wings lined with razor-sharp shards of pure malachite. She demonstrated the power of her weapon by sweeping her left wing across the cliff face, leaving six large diagonal gashes.

The Gems looked at the monstrous fusion, horrified, but quickly snapped back into reality. "You're goin' down!" Amethyst exclaimed, summoning her whip. Pearl summoned her spear, and Garnet lifted her arms, ready to punch Malachite somewhere sensitive.

While the Crystal Gems fought Malachite, Peridot stood in terror. "Do something!" Steven said.

"She did it...Jasper fused with Lapis," Peridot said weakly. "I never thought Jasper would fuse with anyone, let alone a Lazuli."

"Aren't you going to hit her with your energy-blaster thing?"

"That was a function of my synthetic arm, not my natural one!" She thought, and said, "Wait. I think I had a destabilizer in my escape pod. Did my pod survive?"

"Yep," Steven said, bubbling himself and sending himself to the temple. Peridot stood there for a few moments, then Steven came back in another bubble, which he popped. In his right hand was a golden-yellow device with two prongs, an arc of electricity humming between them.

Malachite had shaken off the Crystal Gems, and was making her way to the temple.

"Amethyst! I need to borrow your whip," Peridot called.

"Why?"

"You'll see in a moment."

Amethyst handed Peridot her whip. Peridot took off her visor and from her gem pulled out a yellowish-green javelin, which she tied the destabilizer to with the whip. Once she was done, Peridot hid the assortment of weapons she held with her right hand behind her back and yelled, "Hey, you cuprous clod!"

Malachite turned around.

"Nyeeeeeeeeeah!" Peridot said, pulling down her lower left eyelid with her left hand and sticking out her tongue.

Furious, Malachite galloped over to destroy Peridot for the insult. But just before she did, Peridot threw what she had in her hand at the fusion. The assembly struck Malachite in her lower chest. The fusion roared in pain and began to fall over.

Before she had completely done so, though, she saw Steven. "Rose Quartz!" she exclaimed, and swatted Steven with her right arm. Steven was launched into the air and landed on his back. Hard.

"Oww..." he groaned.

A flash of light, and all that was left of Malachite was a teardrop-shaped blue rock and an orange gem that could easily be mistaken for a shard.

"What do we do now?" Pearl asked.

"Bubble Jasper," Garnet said. Pearl did that and sent Jasper's gem to the room where the gems of corrupted Gems were kept. "Keep Lapis unbubbled," Garnet continued. "She's gone through enough. And Peridot?"

Peridot looked at the fusion.

"How would you like to be a Crystal Gem?"

Peridot thought and said, "On one hand, Homeworld won't approve...but on the other hand, I'm not affiliated with Homeworld anymore, so I'll do it."

"You can't be serious," Pearl said, and then noticed Steven was hurt. "Steven!"

The Gems rushed over.

"Ohhh..." Steven moaned. A puff of smoke, and he was gone, all except a pink stone.

"He's been poofed!" Amethyst exclaimed.

"We'd better keep an eye on him and wait for him to regenerate," Garnet said, concerned. " _If_ he regenerates, that is."

"Why wouldn't he?" Peridot asked.

"Steven is half-Gem. His father was a human, and humans can't regenerate. A fall like the one Steven had could kill him, or at the very least paralyze him."

"Was Rose Quartz his mother?"

"Yes. She gave up her physical form to give birth to him. That is how much she loved life on this planet."

Peridot looked at Steven's gem, shocked.

The gold-tinted robonoid, unbeknownst to them all, was detailing everything it saw.


	4. Diamond Dictator

**70,000 lightyears away...**

A solar system in a distant part of the Milky Way looked like any solar system.

Its star was a red dwarf, the smallest and most common main-sequence star there is. Orbiting it were five planets.

The first planet was a barren rocky world so close to its star its surface melted. But only on one side - it was so close that it did not rotate, leaving one completely molten side forever facing the star, and the other, frozen side forever facing away, completing its year in four days.

The next planet was a gas giant, about the size of Neptune, but much closer in and a grayish-green color. Also, unlike Neptune, it had no moons. This planet's year was only fifteen days long.

The fourth planet was a yellowish gas giant, adorned with an ornate ring system and countless moons, orbiting the star in seventy-eight days, far enough away so that it rotated slowly.

The fifth and outermost planet was also a gas giant, though its coloration was a mixture of pink and white bands, reminiscent of Jupiter. It completed its year in 290 days, very far from its dim star and very cold.

But it was the star's third planet that set it apart. This planet, though tidelocked with its star so it did not rotate, was habitable, covered in forests of glistening pink plants. It had an azure ocean, majestic clouds...and there was civilization planet-over.

Once, a long time ago, this planet, which completed its orbits in thirty-six-and-a-half days (one tenth of an Earth year) and was accompanied by a single moon, had been known as Petra. But the life on this planet had forgotten that name ever since they conquered a nearby planet outside their solar system and began to expand their territory.

These days, the planet was known simply as "Homeworld".

* * *

The castle of the Diamond Sisters was ornate, glistening like the diamonds the Gems were named after. The castle was made of three different-colored buildings joined by large corridors. The central building, yellow in color, was home to Yellow Diamond, the eldest and most ruthless of the three.

Inside Yellow Diamond's throne room, which resembled the inside of the planet's mantle, the Gem reclined on a chair that seemed to be made of lava. Her octahedron-shaped gem was located in the middle of her chest, emitting a soft yellow glow.

Yellow Diamond pressed a button on her throne, bringing up a projector screen and a holographic keyboard. She typed into the keyboard, searched a database, and brought up a screen that would display a soundwave relayed from a certain device. "Sentinel robonoid," she said. "Status update on planet WT-479142 d, AKA Earth."

"Peridot #3702 has regenerated. She has generated complete limbs," said a male voice.

"She abandons the upgrades I specifically designed for her gem type?" Yellow Diamond asked herself. To the microphone, she said, "Continue with report."

"Peridot #3702 has gone rogue and joined the rebel faction known as the Crystal Gems. She has aided in the defusion of Malachite #1041 into Lapis Lazuli #55462 and Sergeant Jasper #1366 via a Class-F Gem destabilizer. Sergeant Jasper #1366 has since been trapped in a regeneration-preventing bubble."

"WHAT?! This is horrible! I should have never sent a peridot to check on the forced fusion experiments from fifty thousand years ago." She sighed. "Continue."

"The hybrid has been forced to retreat into his gem to regenerate. Whether or not he is still alive is currently unknown."

"...Hybrid?"

"It would appear that Rebel Leader Rose Quartz #1000 gave up her physical form thirteen Earth revolutions ago to give birth to a human/Gem hybrid."

"That fool Quartz," she muttered. "Keep monitoring them. Dismissed." The transmission ended, leaving her with a blank projector screen.

Yellow Diamond pursed her lips and got an idea. She typed again, bringing up footage from a security camera, showing the image of a male Gem (yes, they exist, they're just very rare) with green skin, dark green hair, and a square dark green gem located above where his navel would be. He wore a green uniform with a small yellow diamond in the center. Presently, he was slouching against the wall.

"Emerald #40571," she boomed, startling the Gem. "Get me General Obsidian #611."

"Do I have to?" Emerald whined. "That Gem scares the chromium out of me!"

"Yes, you have to, or so help me I will crush your gem and use its remains as bath salt!"

Emerald sighed and pressed a button on the intercom that was next to him. "General Obsidian #611, Lady Yellow Diamond wants you for some reason."

Soon after he said that, a dark figure practically rushed past him, causing him to tremble in fear. Yellow Diamond exited the security camera footage as someone opened the door.

Obsidian. The gem of destruction. Grayish-black in color, with black hair and steely gray eyes. A battle uniform, complete with steel-toed combat boots. Her gem, smooth and shaped like a flat oval, was located on her lower back, above where her tailbone would be. She walked into the room, slowly, dramatically.

"Ah, Obsidian," Yellow Diamond said, smiling. "How are things?"

"My forces have captured two planets in Galaxy RC 34 [that's what we call the Andromeda Galaxy] in perfect condition for hosting kindergartens," Obsidian replied.

"Excellent."

"What about you, milady?"

"Not too well. I need you to go to the planet sometimes called 'Earth' and destroy the rebels calling themselves Crystal Gems."

"How big a threat could they be?"

"I will show you." She scooted over to the right side of her seat and gestured to her throne. Most Gems would never get a chance to sit there, but Yellow Diamond and Obsidian were old friends and very close ones at that, so Obsidian got a lot of extra opportunities.

Yellow Diamond tapped a few buttons on the keyboard, bringing up a holographic projection of Pearl. "Pearl #1056781. She is defective, and thus can think on her own, unlike other pearls. She is not one to be trifled with."

"How did she manage to not get recycled?" Obsidian asked.

Next up, a projection of Amethyst. "Amethyst #80088. She was extracted from her hole in Earth's kindergarten early, hence her small stature. Do not be fooled, though - she is much more durable than most amethysts."

Now a projection of Ruby. "Ruby #1046. Short-tempered and capable of pyrokinesis," Yellow Diamond said. This projection was followed by one of Sapphire. "Sapphire #954. Has future vision enabling her to see future events, which is amplified further if she fuses her eyes together, and is additionally capable of cryokinesis. Both she and the ruby," she continued, combining their projections into one of Garnet, "are fused together as Garnet #2000. A tough, straightforward fusion."

"They have no need to be fused all the time," Obsidian remarked. "Why do they feel the need? Do they really feel that weak?"

"They have intimate feelings for each other," Yellow Diamond explained. "They are so in love that they do not wish to ever be separated. This fact makes their fusion more powerful than other garnets, and even more powerful than jaspers."

She went on, bringing up Lapis' projection. "Lapis Lazuli #55462. Hydrokinetic. Not an official member, but a rogue Gem who fused with Sergeant Jasper #1366 to keep her from carrying out her mission of taking out the rebels. Their fusion, Malachite #1041, has recently defused."

"How? Don't the components of a malachite lose their identities after a while, the fusion is so unstable?"

"Normally, but this fusion was struck by a destabilizer obtained from..." and here Yellow Diamond brought up a projection of Peridot, "Peridot #3702. A recent addition. She has gone rogue in the last few Earth rotations, and is now on the rebel side. But there is more danger still."

She brought up Rose's projection. "Rose Quartz #1000. _The_ Rose Quartz. Rebelled against Homeworld for the sake of protecting a bunch of glorified carbon-based muck far lower than us silicon-based lifeforms. However, she has evidently given up her physical form to give birth to _this_." Up came a projection of Steven. "A human/Gem hybrid. It can be inferred that he has abilities of both species, among them weapon summoning and resistance to Gem destabilizers. However, he can be killed far more easily than we can, as is the case with humans." The projection dissolved.

"Do not worry, milady," Obsidian said. "I will personally see to it that every last one of them is destroyed."

Yellow Diamond beamed. "Good. I think it would be best if you left now and got rid of them sooner."

"Affirmative." Obsidian got up and left the throne room.

"I knew it was smart bringing her in," Yellow Diamond said to herself.

* * *

Obsidian walked over to her ship - a black, clawed version of Peridot's, with Emerald her reluctant escort. Noticing the disgruntled look on his face, Obsidian asked, "What's with you?"

"I haven't gotten a good fuse in fifty-two thousand years, that's what's with me," the beryl replied.

"Fusion. Pah. That's only a way to make the weak stronger."

"No it isn't! Fusion is the ultimate bond between Gems. It's not meant to be built on anger and hate, but on trust and love. I had a girlfriend who I spent a lot of time with fused, before she joined the rebellion and I never saw her again..."

"Fool. Yellow Diamond's probably corrupted her by now."

Obsidian reached her ship. "I am not in need of your service anymore. Go."

Emerald obeyed.

Obsidian got into the ship and took off, setting a course for Earth.

She would not fail her mission. She never had, and she never would.


	5. Steven's Gem

**AN: This chapter is what truly makes this story an AU. The series creators have said that Lion is not Rose, and if Steven gets poofed, he dies. But this is an AU story, so screw the creators.**

* * *

Steven opened his eyes. All he could see was an endless field of dark pink. "Am I dead?" he asked himself. He swam through the medium he was in until he bumped into something cold and hard. He saw that it was a wall, pink and glossy. "I must be in my gem," he said. Steven turned around and swam off, deciding to do some exploring.

After a short period of time Steven came across a large, circular pink object. "So this is where my shield comes from," he said. Then he noticed, at the dead center of the gem, something was glowing. He swam towards it, and gasped.

The source of the light was a large woman, with a head full of massive curly pink hair. She wore a white dress, and had a rosy-pink gem located where her navel would be. The Gem was Rose Quartz herself.

She opened her eyes and saw Steven. "Hello, Steven," she said, smiling.

"Mom!" Steven exclaimed, rushing towards her. Rose scooped him up and gave him a hug.

"You're a lot shorter than I expected you would be," Rose noted. "Have the Gems been giving you proper nutrition?"

Steven stared blankly at her.

"Oh, it doesn't matter. You're here and I get to see you," she said, sighing. "It won't be long, Steven."

"Long for what?" he asked.

"For me to return."

"But...you said we can't exist at the same time! You said we could never meet! Why did you lie to me?!" Steven asked, starting to tear up.

"Listen," Rose said, starting to cry herself. "I didn't want to lie to you. But I realized that when you found the tape, you wouldn't be mature enough to handle the weight of the truth. I'm really sorry, Steven, I really am." The two cuddled for a moment.

"So...how are you going to get back?"

"Funny thing about your birth, Steven. I only gave you my gem, not my physical form."

"Does...Lion have something to do with it?"

"Lion _is_ my physical form."

Steven went starry-eyed.

"When I gave birth to you," she explained, "I released my physical form from my gem. My actual body took on a new shape, that of a male lion. I've been waiting until I can generate a new gem and come back."

"Wow...so you've been watching us ever since we found Lion - I mean, your body?"

"I've been watching you since you were born," Rose replied. "Bringing my body over just gave me a better view."

Steven started floating upwards.

"Your regeneration is almost complete," Rose said. "Until next time, farewell. And Steven?"

"Yeah?"

"Please don't tell the others. They won't be able to handle it."

"No prob, Mom."

Just before he left his gem, Steven said, "I _should_ try changing my clothing just a little bit..."

* * *

The Crystal Gems (now with Peridot) had been waiting for an hour now. "I hope he's okay," Pearl said.

Steven's gem floated into the air. Pale pink light came out of it, and Steven materialized, uninjured. "That was cool," he said.

He looked at the gems. "Oh, hey guys."

Pearl practically tackled him. "You're okay!" she exclaimed.

"All right, Steven!" Amethyst added, and practically tackled Peridot just for the heck of it.

"Check it out!" Steven said once Pearl was done hugging him. He pointed to his feet, which were now clad in a pair of white sneakers. "My days of toe-stubbing are numbered." He strutted forward and banged his left foot into the coffee table. "Spoke too soon!"

"So...what was regeneration like?" Amethyst asked.

"It was okay. I found out where my shield comes from. Not much else of interest," he said, fibbing the last sentence.

Amethyst shrugged. Something from underneath a blanket on the couch began to glow. It rose into the air, and out came Lapis, who was currently tangled up in the blanket.

"AUGH!" Lapis exclaimed. She got out of the blanket, revealing she had removed the diamond symbol from her dress and had donned a pair of ballet flats. "What are you going to do with me?!" she yelped, which was followed by, "Why is Peridot here? And what happened to her hands?"

"Long story short, Peridot's on our side now," Garnet said stoically. "We brought you here to ask if you wanted to join us as well."

"Where's Jasper?"

"Bubbled and stored with the gems of the corrupted, in my quarters. We'll explain how it happened later."

Lapis looked at Steven. Then back at Garnet. "Are you going to imprison me?"

"No. We honestly did not put you in the mirror. I apologize if we didn't find you and free you, but you know how much we fear those affiliated with the Diamond Sisters."

"So...about you becoming one of us..." Steven said.

"I'll do it for you, Steven," she said. "For my beach summer fun buddy." She made a fart noise for emphasis.

Everyone (except Pearl) laughed. Pearl was considering the strategic value of Lapis. When the laughter died down, Pearl said, "We'll be happy to have you, Lapis. Just tell me you won't hurt Steven or any of us."

"Don't worry, I won't."

While the original three left, Steven asked, "So Peridot, how did you decide to help Earth?"

"The creatures here are amazing," Peridot replied. "Nothing on Homeworld is like them."

"Gee, Peri, I thought someone who liked technology as much as you do wouldn't be turned around by nature," Lapis commented.

"Hey, a good deal of technology is designed to take after nature. Even Gems are still connected to the circle of life. Besides, I found out how I lost my natural limbs, and apparently the Homeworld Gems were involved..."

Silence.

"Maybe you should change your uniforms so we know you're Crystal Gems," Steven said. "You know, put a star somewhere."

"Already have," Peridot replied, showing him her boots, which now had a star-shaped design on their backs.

Lapis retreated into her gem. A few seconds later, she came out, with a star-shaped pattern on the fringe of her dress, and the same design on her sash as well.

"Cute," Peridot commented.

Lapis blushed a little.

* * *

"Two thousand forty lightyears from Earth," the guidance system said.

Obsidian grinned evilly.


	6. Pearl vs the Bagel Sandwich

**Two days later, 2:38 PM**

With Steven regenerated, life settled back to a normal routine. The original Crystal Gems educated their new recruits about their mission's intent, and in turn the new recruits gave them an update of Homeworld's advancement and how to prepare for their inevitable arrival.

One day, while the Gems were out fighting yet another corrupted Gem (transporting there on an expanded warp pad courtesy of Peridot), Steven decided to make a bagel sandwich. Before he could eat it, though, the Gems returned, Peridot carrying a dark red gem in a yellow-green bubble, and a lavender fusion with four arms in place of Lapis and Amethyst.

"Whoa," Steven said, going-starry eyed. "Amethyst and Lapis fused?"

"We're Azurite now, Stevenman," Azurite (for that was her name) responded. An arm made of water extended from her back across the room. It split into two arms and gave Steven a noogie.

"Guys? I'm carrying an extremely dangerous corrupted spinel here, so if you don't mind being more careful, that would be much appreciated," Peridot said.

"I'll take the gem from here," Garnet said. Peridot transferred the bubble over to her, and the fusion carried it off to her room. The door leading to the temple's rooms now had the addition of a yellow-green triangle in one of its internal angles, and a blue teardrop shape in another; each represented a room of the new members.

Azurite retracted her water arms.

"So how was - _whoooooooooooah_!" Steven yelped as he slipped on a puddle of leftover water. The bagel sandwich he was holding flew into the air and landed on Pearl's face, her nose impaling it through the bagel's hole.

Azurite cracked up so hard she defused. Her components continued to laugh while a very confused Peridot and a very annoyed Pearl stood in silence. Steven regained his composure and got up. "Hey Lapis, can you give me a boost?"

"What for?" Lapis asked, as the laughter died down.

"I think my sandwich is still edible."

Lapis complied. She picked him up so he could reach Pearl's face. Steven pried the bagel off her face. Lapis set him down, and he began to eat.

Pearl muttered something about safety around wet floors and went to her room.

"Man, you should've seen it! Lapis and I fused and made a water-whip so we could fight this huge monster! It could _levitate stuff with its mind_ ," Amethyst said, going starry-eyed.

"It was pretty tough. Not unlike the Red Diamond," Lapis joked.

"Lapis, the Red Diamond is just a story told to young Gems to keep them from misbehaving," Peridot said.

"You sure about that?"

"Red Diamond?" Steven asked, still eating the bagel sandwich. "Who's that?"

"C'mon, we'll tell you," Amethyst said. The four sat on the floor.

"The Red Diamond was the toughest Gem around," Amethyst explained. "Over ten feet tall, wise, and totally ripped, he could take on anything and anyone - and he was a single Gem!"

"Red Diamond's a guy?" Steven asked, finishing his sandwich.

"Sometimes Gems want to do something different, so they decide to take a masculine form," Peridot told him.

"He was the ultimate warrior," Lapis said. "His weapon? A metal arm covering summoned from the gem on his left elbow - the only diamond with a gem in that placement. The only other Gems with something like that are green diamonds, and even then their gems are on their _right_ elbows."

"He was the only one of his kind, too," Amethyst added. "Just like regular red diamonds are the least common of the diamonds, he's the rarest Gem diamond around."

"Cool," Steven said.

"No one knows if that's true or not, though," Peridot said. "The story's been around for one-hundred-eighty thousand years."

"I didn't know Gems were that old," Steven said.

"I was talking in terms of Homeworld years. Our home planet completes ten revolutions in the time it takes Earth to complete one."

"So I divide by ten...eighteen thousand years. That's still a lot," Steven said. "Do Pearl and Garnet know the story?"

"Of course. Every Gem has heard it. And when Gems fuse, their fusions can access their memories up to the point of fusion, so Garnet no doubt knows it."

"I love it that you guys are on the team," Steven said, hugging the former adversaries.

"Aww..." Lapis cooed.

* * *

"Forty-one lightyears from Earth," the guidance system said, as the ship whizzed through the 55 Cancri system.

"About time I got someplace local," Obsidian grunted.


	7. Rose's Return

**The next day, 1:02 PM**

The Crystal Gems had decided to talk about Garnet's prophecy and what it was predicting. Sitting on the arrangement of couches in the living room, the aliens and human/alien hybrid tried to figure out what would happen next.

"The first part of the prophecy said that old foes would be liberated," Pearl was saying. "Lapis and Jasper's fusion took control and freed herself."

"Yeah, but Peridot and Lapis redeemed themselves, and that's also part of the prophecy, P," Amethyst said. "So _two_ parts have been fulfilled."

"Not quite," Garnet interjected. "When I issued it, I saw that the number of our enemies that had changed sides was more than just two."

Silence.

There was a loud _BOOM_! outside.

"That sounded like the source wasn't too far away," Peridot said. "We should investigate it."

"Good idea. It could be another monster," Garnet said.

All the Gems (Steven included) went outside to check it out, forgetting to close the door behind them.

* * *

Meanwhile, the source of the noise made itself quite apparent: a large ship, resembling Peridot's old hand-shaped ship, had landed. However, this ship was black, its fingers shaped into claws. Obsidian stepped out of the ship, her boots crunching the sand beneath them.

"The Diamond Authority has sent a sentry!" Obsidian heard someone say. She turned around to see Ronaldo Fryman holding up a smartphone. "I now have proof that they want to hollow out the Earth and - WAUGH!"

Obsidian had picked him up. Despite them being the same height, Obsidian was far stronger, holding him by the neck with one hand.

"They are called the Diamond Triad, cretin," she growled. "And our mission is not to hollow out your planet - our mission is to conquer it and use it as a creation place for more Gems. An act that will deplete this miserable world of all its life and leave it a barren rock."

"Can't...breathe..."

Obsidian dropped him. He landed on his back, bruising multiple parts of him. He got up and ran away.

"Now, where are those rebels?..." She spotted them.

The Crystal Gems saw her, too. "General Obsidian," Pearl said, stopping in her tracks.

"Who's she?" Steven asked.

"A general from the war," Garnet said. "Feared by many for her ruthlessness and desire to complete what she started."

"Yellow Diamond sent me here to deal with you," Obsidian said, "but she never told me it would be this easy." She pulled out a remote control and pressed a button. Her ship fired a small bundle into the air from its ring finger. Once in midair, the bundle began to expand, until it had become a forty-foot version of one of Peridot's robonoids, with six legs rather than four. It was also obviously designed to have a higher durability, for it bore an arrangement of spikes covering its body. Raising one of its legs, it tried to crush Amethyst, who was rescued by one of Lion's portals at the last minute.

"We need to fuse," Pearl said as Amethyst came out the other side of the portal. "We need Alexandrite."

Garnet and Amethyst nodded. The two Gems and the fusion did a synchronized dance, transforming into a thirty-six-foot fusion with six arms, reddish-purple skin, and neon teal hair.

"Let's do this," Alexandrite said, flexing four of her arms.

"A fusion is no match for a battle robonoid," Obsidian snarled. The robonoid kicked Alexandrite into the temple with two of its legs. The fusion passed out from the impact.

* * *

Inside the temple, a spherical, pale green gem floated in the air, contained in a pink bubble, floating alongside several other bubbled gems. When Alexandrite hit the temple, the force was so great the bubble popped, sending the spherical gem rolling out into the living room of Steven's home.

A flash of light, and the Centipeetle mother popped out, appearing as she did the last time she regenerated. Immediately noticing that her Chaaaaps-brand potato chips were absent, the little creature began to fret. Luckily, the bubble containing the bag rolled out to where she was standing.

Letting out a happy squeak, the Centipeetle mother ruptured the bubble and gorged herself on the remaining chips in the bag. Satisfied, she trotted out into the living room. She heard a crash outside and squeezed her body through the door. She saw Steven trying to dodge the leg of a massive robot.

Angered that someone would try to hurt him, she let out an angry squeak and scampered down the stairs, intent on helping Steven.

* * *

"Peridot, we need to fuse," Lapis said.

"Why? You saw what that thing did to Alexandrite," Peridot said, motioning to the still-unconscious fusion.

"When I was Malachite I was very hard to beat. Imagine how powerful I would be if I was fused to someone I actually like."

"Okay..."

The Gems began to dance. Or, at least, Lapis did. Peridot tried to, but couldn't. Lapis snickered. Peridot looked at her. "What?"

"You are such a dork," Lapis said, glomping Peridot.

They fused.

Where they once stood was a sixteen-foot fusion. Teal in color, with four arms and four eyes. Her bangs were shaped into a point, and she wore a pair of goggles over her eyes.

"A turquoise," Obsidian groaned. "They made a turquoise."

Something bit her leg. She looked down to see the Centipeetle mother chomping down on Obsidian's shin, growling.

"Insolent creature," Obsidian snarled, prying the corrupted Gem off her leg. Looking for a place to get rid of it, she eyed Steven trying to wake up Alexandrite.

"Come on, guys! I need you to get up!" Steven said. He turned around to see Obsidian lift the Centipeetle mother into the air. Obsidian threw the monster at Steven; the corrupted Gem landed in Steven's mouth, knocking him over.

The Centipeetle mother got up, pulling herself out of Steven's mouth, noticing the saliva on her tail.

Healing saliva.

The Centipeetle mother retreated into her gem. Alexandrite lifted her head to see the gem rise into the air, glowing. The gem spun around, changing shape, until it resembled Amethyst's gem, only pale green and with a heptagonal facet. A flash of light, and a humanoid shape came out.

The Gem was female, with light green skin and almost-white, short and unruly hair. She wore a brown shirt with maroon shoulder pads that angled upwards, black pants, and sneakers. Her gem was located on her chest.

"Man, I was sick of being a monster and all that stuff," the Gem said.

"Guess my healing powers are back," Steven said. "Who are you?"

"The name's Diopside, kid. Member of the Crystal Gems, and for the last two thousand years, mutant myriapod."

"Diopside..." Alexandrite said weakly. "Good to see you again."

The robonoid began to advance. "Hold that thought," Diopside said. With a movement of her hand, a pillar of rock shot up from the ground, launching the robonoid into the air. It landed on its feet, though it stumbled.

"Turquoise! Summon your weapon!" Alexandrite commanded.

The smaller fusion obeyed. She summoned Peridot's javelin and a chain from Lapis' gem, merging them into a net.

"I didn't know you had that," Turquoise said in Peridot's voice.

"There's a lot you don't know about me," Turquoise said, this time in Lapis' voice.

"Can we just focus?!" Turquoise snapped, this time in her own voice. She threw the net over one of the robonoid's legs, tripping it. It got up again and turned to face her. Turquoise manipulated a current of water up out of the ocean, a current bristling with electricity. She shoved it into the robonoid, short-circuiting it.

Alexandrite got up. Her visor fell off, revealing all six of her eyes. Summoning her weapon, a massive bolas, she flung it at the robonoid. The bolas tied the stumbling robonoid's legs together, bringing it down. Diopside pulled a rock from the ground with a flick of her wrist and dropped it on where its head would be, officially deactivating it.

They cheered at their victory, the fusions defusing (except for Garnet, obviously). Obsidian, meanwhile, saw her chance to do what she had come to do: destroy them. Or at least, one of them.

She picked up Steven by his shirt. The other Gems noticed. "Steven!" Lapis exclaimed.

"You're too late," Obsidian said, creating an impenetrable black bubble, twenty feet wide and ten feet high.

Inside the bubble, Obsidian summoned a black dagger from her gem. "End of the line for you, hybrid," she seethed, moving the dagger to Steven's neck, intent on slitting his throat.

A roar came from behind her. She turned to see that Lion was also in the bubble. The creature stood up on his hind legs.

A rose quartz gemstone emerged on his stomach, taking the place of his navel.

Lion erupted into a flash of light, pinning Obsidian to the wall of the bubble, which soon came down. With the bubble gone, all could see Lion changing shape, becoming more and more humanoid. The light dissolved, and where Lion once was...Rose was in his place.

And she was angrier than even when the Crystal Gems had seen her angry.

"LEAVE MY SON ALONE!" Rose roared. Obsidian got up, only to be knocked on the head by Rose's shield. Hard.

Obsidian was reduced to her gem. Rose summoned her sword and lifted it over her head, ready to shatter the black rock.

"Wait! Mom! If you do that, you'll be no better than the bad guys," Steven interjected.

Rose calmed down. "You're right, Steven. One must not reduce themselves to the low standards of the evil." She put her sword away and bubbled Obsidian's gem. She sent it back to the temple.

All the other Crystal Gems gaped at the sight.

"Rose!" Pearl exclaimed. Rose turned around to see her friends, alongside two Gems she did not recognize, but could tell they were also Crystal Gems.

Rose smiled. "My friends," she said, enveloping them in a giant hug.

"I can't believe you were Lion the whole time," Garnet said.

"Steven knew."

"She made me not tell you so you wouldn't worry," Steven offered as an explanation.

"We're just glad she's back," Amethyst said.

"She left?" Diopside asked.

"It's a long story."


	8. Special Prisoner

**70,000 lightyears away...**

"WHY did she send an obsidian?!" White Diamond griped as she and Blue Diamond made their way to Yellow Diamond's quarters. "She should have sent an aquamarine, or a sapphire; someone who can keep a level head!"

"One of the rebels is a sapphire," Blue Diamond told her. "If we send one of them to terminate the Crystal Gems, they may be reluctant to kill one of their own kind and defect. I do admit that our sister can be a bit headstrong at times, but it's not all bad. We wouldn't be in power without it."

They continued the walk to Yellow Diamond's room in silence.

Blue Diamond was the middle child of the three. She had deep blue skin with indigo hair tied up in a fairly large bun. She wore a uniform with a rhombus-shaped hole for the gem on her chest (which was essentially Yellow Diamond's gem, but blue) and a simple skirt. Her slender-yet-buff figure gave everyone the impression of a trickster, which she was.

White Diamond, the youngest and most emotional of the three, had a slightly pink tint to her color. Her burgundy-colored hair was swept back into a pixie cut, with two strands coming down on either side of her forehead. Her uniform was similar to that of her sisters, but while Yellow Diamond's had no skirt and Blue Diamond's skirt was quite small, hers reached to her knees and had a triangular pattern at the fringe. Her gem, also located on her chest, was the same as those of her sisters, only brilliant white.

The two Gems arrived at Yellow Diamond's room. Opening the door, they saw their sister on her throne, sulking.

"We're sorry about Obsidian, sis," Blue Diamond said. "We know how much she meant to you."

"That's not what I'm upset about."

"Oh?"

Yellow Diamond brought up a projection of Lion. "I have found out what exactly this mysterious creature is," she said. "When a Gem mates with a human, they give birth to a half-human hybrid. The child receives the gem."

"Yeah, and the mother goes bye-bye. Case closed."

"Wrong. It seems that the physical form of the mother gets released and takes on the form of a creature native to Earth."

" _That thing is Rose's BODY_?!" White Diamond exclaimed.

"It's Rose now. She generated a new gem recently and has returned to being herself. But," Yellow Diamond continued, "there is something worse. The hybrid has cured Diopside #47995 of her corruption."

She looked at her sisters. "Corruption. The special talent of Gems of my type. Control over a Gem's mind, reducing them to their most primal instincts."

"YD, I know. You used to do that to me all the time when we were gemlings," White Diamond said.

"Well, my power is useless on colored diamonds like Blue or myself. And we were young, not mature enough to know better."

 _Like any of us are now_ , White Diamond thought.

"I corrupted Crystal Gems to torment them, to force them into wreaking havoc on the humans, and I had thought I had gotten them all. With four Crystal Gems [Garnet counts as two] running about I am fine - but _eight?_ And one of which _I corrupted_?!"

"We'll think of something, YD," White Diamond said.

"Do you want me to check on the special prisoner?" Blue Diamond asked.

"Sure," Yellow Diamond said.

Her sisters left the room.

"Son of a birthstone," Yellow Diamond growled once her sisters were out of earshot.

* * *

Blue Diamond opened the door to the dungeon, which was located underneath the blue portion of the castle. She walked through, eying Gems captured during the war for Earth: unakites, jades, goshenites, rubies, and so many others. She and her sisters had decided that, in order to not make martyrs and start another rebellion, to kept them alive, behind fields that they could not penetrate.

She went to the end of one particular hall and went into a closest, where the security monitor was. None of the Gems she had passed, be they a labradorite or a topaz, thought twice about it; they just assumed she was doing another security check. Little did they know that there was a secret door in that closet that only the Diamond Sisters and the special prisoner knew about.

Opening said door (there was no one else in the room) and shutting it behind her, Blue Diamond descended down a winding spiral staircase to a place far underground, reaching a brick-plated room that was very, very old. It had a single cell, and behind its barrier a mysterious Gem was huddled in the corner.

"You are weak," Blue Diamond scoffed. "Oh, if only your husband could see you now. What would he say? What would he do if he found you were worthless?"

The Gem let out a loud cringing noise. Something on her body glowed temporarily.

"You cannot summon your weapon here."

"I don't need to," the Gem replied. "My husband respected everyone, even birthstones like you. What you are doing is wrong. He never wanted The Gempire to be like this: warlike, wiping out life on planet after planet, just to increase the size of the army."

"My sisters and I are in charge now. Not even Rose Quartz #1000 can stop us. Rose Quartz #1000 has come back, have you heard? Turns out her physical form was the beast all along."

"She respects Earth. It's logical that she would give birth to a hybrid."

"Bah."

The Gem rose to her feet and walked over to a spot just behind the field, glaring at the smaller Blue Diamond. The prisoner stood almost ten feet tall, with grass-green hair and pale green skin. She wore a simple tunic and a pair of green boots. Her gem, shaped like an oblique irregular octagonal pyramid, was located on her lower right arm just before her elbow, resembling a sort of spike.

She may have been behind a barrier, but she still intimidated Blue Diamond. The smaller Gem gulped and said, "I will leave you, weakling." She began to leave.

"I'm a far better fighter than you and you know it."

"Don't be so sure. Earth will be ours and there is nothing you can do about it..." and just before she disappeared, she stuck her head in and said, "...Former Empress Green Diamond #15."

And then she was gone.

Green Diamond went back to her corner. Slumping against the wall, she cried. "Oh, honey, I wish you were here to make it all better."

However, she was alone.

Or so she thought.


	9. Fusion Practice, Forced Fusion, and more

**AN: So I read on Steven Universe wiki that sometime in season 2 after the hiatus Pearl and Steven will fuse, creating a partially human Rainbow Quartz. Since Rose has come back in this continuity, you will get to see two versions of Rainbow.**

 **Enjoy! ~T. Nerdinator**

* * *

 **The next morning, 9:29 AM**

Now that Rose was back, the Gems had to prepare for the inevitable arrival of the Diamond Sisters (or Diamond Triad, as they had apparently changed the name in the last 5000 years). So, that morning, all the Gems (and Steven) came outside to practice summoning Rose's old fusions, something they had not done in a long time.

"You ready?" Amethyst asked, cracking her back.

"I haven't summoned Rhodocrosite in thirty years," Rose said, smiling. "It'll be a nice change of pace."

They began to dance, Rose in her formal manner reminiscent of a waltz, while Amethyst did something more reminiscent of twerking. Closer and closer they got, until both disappeared in a flash of light.

Once it dissipated, the Gems got to see their fusion. Rhodocrosite, as she was called, was about the same size as Opal, with four arms, long puffy hair, and pink all over. She wore a short skirt with ruffles, and had star-shaped hairpins keeping the bangs out of her eyes.

"Awww yeaaaaaah," Rhodocrosite said. She conjured Amethyst's whip and Rose's shield, which combined themselves into a hot pink crossbow. She demonstrated its power by creating a quartz-tipped arrow and shooting it at the battle robonoid (which was now being used as a test dummy). Fluid leaked from the puncture site.

Rhodocrosite defused.

"Man, that was awesome," Amethyst said.

"My turn," Garnet said, stepping up.

"You sure about this? Tier 2 fusions with you in them tend to be very addictive for the other component," Rose said. "We _know_ what happens with Sugilite."

"And evidently it happens in Sardonyx, too," Garnet said. "But we need to be prepared for anything. And if anything makes Carnelian necessary, we must be ready for it."

"Good point."

The two did the fusion dance. After a short period of time, they merged. It felt like eagles made of light were coming out of them as they fused.

The brick-red Carnelian emerged. Fifty feet tall, with four arms, four eyes behind a pair of sunglasses (with the upper set of eyes peeking out), frizzy brown hair, and a formal suit-like outfit. Combining her weapons into metal gloves with finger guards, Carnelian slammed her upper left fist against the robonoid, leaving a sizable dent.

"Score," she said. She defused. But everyone was shocked when three Gems came out.

"What's going on here?" Lapis asked.

"Ruby and I were thinking about what would happen if either one of us got 'poofed', as Steven calls it," Sapphire explained. "So we decided that, to prepare for that possibility, we need to fuse with Rose by ourselves."

"Really?" Rose asked, confused.

"I know we've never summoned our fusions with you in the last seven thousand Earth years," Ruby added, "but as Garnet said, we need to prepare for anything."

"All right, then. Ruby, you go first."

Ruby obeyed. Doing her own, formal-ish dance with Rose, they merged, creating a red being of Rose's stature with four legs and dark pink hair of a length between Ruby's and Rose's. She wore a short skirt, tank top, and a headband.

"Red Quartz is back, baby," Red Quartz said, pumping her arms.

Sapphire giggled.

Red Quartz summoned a fighting fan from her gems and flung it at the robonoid, slicing one of its legs open. Red Quartz retrieved her weapon and defused. Sapphire went up to Rose, while Ruby went back to sit with the other Gems.

"I didn't know you fused with other people besides Sapphire," Steven commented.

"Well, I fused with a lot of Gems until she and I decided to stay together as Garnet," the corundum replied.

Shifting their eyes to the fusion dance, they witnessed Rose and Sapphire combine, creating what would be best described as an eight-foot-tall, four-eyed, light pink version of Sapphire. She had a few curls here and there, but not many, and had a relatively medium-sized dress, though this one had a bustle.

"Pink Sapphire," Steven said, going starry-eyed. He went back to normal and looked at Peridot. "Did I get the name right?"

"Yep. They weren't very creative when it came to naming that type of gem."

Pink Sapphire summoned her weapon, combining a pair of brass knuckles (apparently Sapphire's weapon) and Rose's shield into a tekko (look it up, it's Japanese). She slammed it into the side of the robonoid, leaving a skinny gash in the side.

"That will be all," the fusion said, in a soft, melodic voice

She defused.

"Pearl," Rose said, while Ruby and Sapphire fused back into Garnet.

"A-are you sure you want to summon Rainbow Quartz again? I mean, I'm not-"

"We need to, Pearl. I know why you did it in front of Greg the last time we did, but can we do it out of kindness rather than jealousy?"

"How did you-"

"When she was in my gem, she saw and heard everything I did," Steven explained.

Pearl groaned.

"It'll be alright, Pearl," Rose said, trying to comfort the organic gem.

Pearl sniffed and said, "S-sure."

They fused.

Rainbow Quartz came out, looking different than she did in the video Steven had seen. Her nearly-transparent skirt was replaced by a mauve sash, and her legwarmers by a pair of sandals. Otherwise she looked almost the same.

"Hi Steven!" the fusion bubbled in a very perky, optimistic voice. Think Unikitty, but as an eleven-foot-six extraterrestrial superorganism. "It's so nice to see you in person. The other fusions have told me so much about you."

"Yay! Rainbow!" the hybrid exclaimed. "You're so cool."

"More than you know it, little guy." She summoned a battleaxe out of her components' weapons and ripped a hole into the robonoid behind her with it, all while bearing the same goofy grin.

"Awesome," Steven said.

"Hey G," Rainbow Quartz said to her fellow fusion. "I've seen in Pearl's memories that you forgave her."

"Well, I wouldn't have done it without you telling me about Pearl's past trauma."

Rainbow Quartz laughed. "Listen, I gotta go. I'll say hi to Opal for you, okay Steven?"

"Great!", which was soon followed by, "How? And...how did the other fusions tell you about me?"

"Well, there's a place between the fifth and sixth dimensions of spacetime where fusions live when they aren't being used."

"Is that where Garnet goes when she defuses?"

"It's where all fusions go, Stuball." She rumpled his hair. Then she defused.

"That was the coolest giant woman I ever saw!" Steven exclaimed, rushing over to Rainbow Quartz's components.

"Is that what you call our fusions?" Rose asked, laughing.

"Yep!"

"You really think I'm cool?" Pearl asked, nervous.

"You're one of the coolest Gems! Well, you're all pretty cool, to be fair."

Pearl smiled. "Thank you," she said, hugging him. "That means a lot to me."

She and Steven dissolved into a flash of light. Where they once stood was now another rainbow quartz, only this one had a fluffy brown pixie cut, blue shorts, and a pink tunic.

"We fused?!" the second rainbow quartz exclaimed in Pearl's voice.

"It reminds me of the time I fused with Connie," it continued in Steven's voice.

Rose looked at Amethyst. "Human friend of your son's," Amethyst explained.

"Ah."

"I am not Pearl, nor am I Steven," the second rainbow quartz said, in a voice all its own. "I am...Pearleven!"

The fusion did a little moonwalk and began to sing. "Don't stop! Pearleven! Oh YEAAAAAAAH!"

Diopside and Peridot stood confused while everyone else laughed, the former two not getting the song reference.

Pearleven defused.

"That was epic," Steven said, going starry-eyed.

"I think we've had enough practice for today," Pearl said.

* * *

 **That afternoon, 1:13 PM**

"Are you sure you don't want to fuse with me, Diopside?" Rose asked while she and Steven gave her a tour of the temple.

"Yeah...there's really only one Gem I like fusing with, and I haven't seen him since I joined the rebellion..." Diopside said, blushing a little.

"Can I fuse with you, Mom?" Steven asked.

"Steven, our gems are the same type. We can't fuse because of the specifics of their placement."

"Oh."

They went into The Burning Room. "And this is where we keep the corrupted Gems," Steven said. "You used to be here when you were Centipeetle."

"Ah yes, I remember," the pale green Gem responded.

Rose noticed something in a purplish bubble. It looked like...four gem shards glued together?

"Steven? Do you know what this is?"

"Oh, you don't remember when I was in the Kindergarten the second time?"

"I think I was asleep that day...I might not be human, but I do need my rest, and maintaining Lion was hard work."

"Oh. Well, sometime during the war, some people from Homeworld took the shards of fallen Gems and tried to make fusions, but with only one gem. Peridot got sent to check on them the day I learned about it."

"Forced fusions?! _The Diamond Sisters have gone_ _that far?!_ "

"And they're so hoidy-toidy about normal fusion being bad," Diopside scoffed.

Rose began to cry.

"You okay Mom?" Steven asked.

"Was it something I said?" Diopside asked.

"No...I recognize who the shards belong to," Rose wept. "Amazonite. Heliodor. Red Beryl. Zircon. My dearest and oldest friends from Homeworld, the first to join the Crystal Gems, the first to fall in the war...oh, Steven, I wish you could have met them!" she sobbed, clutching the bubble to her chest.

A tear slid through the bubble's wall via osmosis, coming into contact with the gem. The bubble began to vibrate.

"Huh?" Rose asked, backing away from the bubble, which was now floating in the air. The bubble popped as the shards flew out to four different places in the room. Other shards slipped out of the bubbles they were in, merging with the former shards of The Cluster, until four complete gems were formed. Four flashes of light, and four Gems Steven had never seen before were now in the room.

The first was a green Gem, with her hair in a French bob and wearing a simple dress, her triangular gem located in her navel. Amazonite.

The second was yellow, with a ponytail and a jumpsuit, her circular, octagonal-faceted gem located on her chest. Heliodor.

The third was reddish-pink, with long flowing hair, t-shirt and shorts, her square gem located above her navel. Red Beryl.

The last was dark blue, with a regal outfit and short hair. Her gem, as Steven later found out, was located between her shoulders, circular with a 12-sided facet. Zircon.

Rose, Steven, and Diopside stood in awe.

"Man, the healing power of a Rose Quartz is _strong_ ," Diopside noted.

The former Cluster Gems looked at their bodies, relieved they were whole again.

"Geez, it's nice to know that I'm not stuck with you guys anymore," Heliodor said to the other three.

"Oh, you're still stuck with me, Dori," Amazonite chuckled.

"Guys?..." Zircon interrupted, gesturing to Rose.

"Oh. Rose," Red Beryl said.

Rose opened her arms wide, and the four smaller Gems rushed forward to hug her.

"I thought I lost you forever," Rose wept, this time out of happiness.

"Forcing us together gave us another chance to live," Zircon replied.

* * *

 **Later that day, 3:46 PM**

After giving the four recently-resurrected Gems an overview of what had changed (and finishing Diopside's tour of the temple), Steven realized something very important had not happened.

"Dad doesn't know about all this stuff! And Connie doesn't either!" he exclaimed.

"Of course! I have to break it to your father that I'm back!" Rose yelped.

"We'll have to do something about this," Pearl said. "We can't just freak people out."

Garnet cleared her throat. Eleven pairs of eyes turned to look at her. Garnet said, "I have a plan."

* * *

 **That night, 7:00 PM  
**

"You sure about this?" Amethyst asked Garnet. They and Pearl had already arrived at the Maheswaran residence, where there was evidently going to be a barbecue.

"Positive."

Greg's van pulled up. Steven and Greg came out of it, closing the doors behind them. "Been a long time since we went here," Greg commented.

"This time, we're staying unfused," Amethyst said. "Well, Garnet isn't, but that's a given."

Pearl gave her a look.

The human and the hybrid started towards the site of the barbecue. "You coming?" Greg called to the Gems.

"We will, I just thought it would be nice to secure the van," Pearl replied.

"Okay."

As soon as they were out of sight and earshot, Amethyst motioned for the other Gems to come out from behind the rocks they were hiding behind. Pearl, meanwhile, did what she told Greg she was going to do, partly to make it seem convincing, partly because she's Pearl.

* * *

"Hey Connie," Steven said. "I thought it would be nice to try something like this again...without what happened last time..."

Connie shrugged. "It's okay, Steven. My parents have said they have wanted to meet the Gems individually anyway. They aren't going to be fused again, right?"

"Garnet will be, but only her," Steven said.

"Right, right."

Meeting up with Connie's parents, who were yakking with Greg about carwash stuff, Steven announced, "Mr. and Mrs. Maheswaran? The New-and-Improved Crystal Gems!"

(I think I'll have part of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" play here. The music just feels right)

The Gems came in, individually, slowly. The humans had expected Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, but not those that followed. Gems they had never seen before; Connie had known about Lapis, and she'd heard of Peridot, but who were those other Gems that followed them? And why was Peridot with them? It was all so confusing.

Then came a big shock. An eight-foot-tall Gem with pink curly hair and a rose quartz in her navel.

Jaws dropped. Especially Greg's.

(Music ends here)

"Rose?" Greg asked. "Y-you're...alive?"

"Yes."

"What happened to Lion?" Connie asked.

"Turns out Lion was Mom the whole time," Steven replied.

"And you didn't tell me?!"

"I didn't know! And I was busy with Gem stuff. Like, there was a battle yesterday, and we fought a Gem from Homeworld..."

"Homeworld?" Mr. Maheswaran asked.

"Our home planet," Zircon explained. "In case you haven't realized it yet, we are extraterrestrial organisms, from a planet seventy thousand lightyears away. We call it Homeworld because the Gem Empire, or 'Gempire' as we call it, incorporates several planets in its territory."

"It's been over five thousand Earth years since we've been there," Amazonite added. "You see, we're rebels. The Gems on Homeworld wanted to take this planet for its own and create Kindergartens to make new Gems."

"So it's a place where children are literally grown from the ground," Mrs. Maheswaran noted.

"Making new Gems, however, drains the life force of a habitable planet, rendering it barren. That is why we defected - Earth is unmatched in terms of biodiversity, and we did not want to lose that," Rose added, finishing the story. "Oh, I'm Steven's mother, by the way."

The rest of the night was spent with the Gems, hybrid, and humans chatting and eating. Even Pearl, for once. And the Maheswarans began to lighten up a bit, especially when Diopside got to her comedy routine.

"...and then the other guy says, 'Hey, that's no monster, that's my wife!'" Diopside finished her latest joke, brandishing her light-green club for emphasis.

Everyone guffawed.

"It's funny because I tried to pass it off as true!" Greg chortled.

* * *

 **AN: Yeah, this was a big and eventful chapter. The Diamond Sisters are coming soon, don't worry!  
**

 **PS: Carnelian is the fusion whose silhouette is seen in "Historical Friction".**


	10. Bonding

**AN: Dual-gender fusions like Stevonnie and Pearleven use these pronouns: che (pronounced CHAY), chur, and churz.**

* * *

 **Three days later, 10:14 AM**

* * *

Rose and Steven had spent the last three days bonding. The Gem had patiently answered all of his questions: how come she had a realm in her hair used for storage when she was Lion (Gems of Rose's type could do that naturally with their hair), why she never wore shoes (to foster her connection with plant life and thus increase the strength of her phytokinesis), and how old she was (13,279 in Earth years; 132,793 in Homeworld revolutions).

Peridot, meanwhile, had spent her time monitoring space for any upcoming ships sent from Homeworld and upgrading her robonoids. She had found an additional, gold-tinted one she did not remember having, but she shrugged it off; she could never keep an accurate record of how many she had in her possession anyway.

Recently, though, she had started getting this...feeling. A warm, fuzzy feeling. And somehow...she only got it when she was around a certain blue Gem.

She had known about love, rare as it was on Homeworld; there was the love between Rose and Steven, the love Amethyst had for her numerous piles of junk, the love of getting something done Peridot was so familiar with. No, this was different; and Peridot soon realized it was the same type of love that made up Garnet's being, the kind that made her so powerful.

Peridot was feeling love. For Lapis. Not sure of what to do, she had asked Diopside and Red Beryl to come to a private little meeting to discuss it.

After hearing what Peridot had to say, Diopside said, "Go for it, Peri."

"A-are you sure? She's nearly four Earth millenia my senior, for one, and we don't know each other that much (although we have gotten to know each other better in the last week or so)..."

"Hey, we're Gems. When it comes to dating, it really only matters if you're over seven thousand years apart agewise. Homeworld probably doesn't let that kind of love exist anymore, but..."

"When I met Zircon, and when Heliodor met Amazonite, we weren't sure if the other liked us," Red Beryl interrupted. "But we waited until the right moment, and now we have something we longed for: a romantic relationship. Just give it some time, and maybe you'll find out if Lapis reciprocates."

Something rang. "Oh, I forgot, I have to go with the other Cluster Gems to help Greg out at his carwash," Red Beryl said. She left the house.

"How do you know so much about love?" Peridot asked.

"I had a boyfriend," Diopside responded. "He couldn't join the rebellion like I did, and...I wonder if he's even still alive."

"It'll be okay," Peridot reassured her. "Hey...where are the others?"

* * *

As it turned out, they were in the strawberry field, where Pearl was helping Steven and Connie train. Lapis was also practicing, using her blue chain against Amethyst's whip and Rose's shield. Lapis evidently seldom used her weapon, as she wasn't very comfortable with it, but here she was, getting accustomed to using it in combat.

Diopside and Peridot warped over to the scene, and watched as Lapis started to gain the upper hand when Rose and Amethyst fused. Now with a much larger opponent, Lapis had to expertly dodge and deflect the arrows from Rhodocrosite's crossbow. She eventually slapped the crossbow out of the fusion's hand with her chain and tied her feet together, bringing her down with a crash.

"Not bad, squirt," Rhodocrosite said weakly. "Not bad at all."

Meanwhile Garnet had decided to help Pearl with training the kids, fusing with her to form Sardonyx. The eighteen-foot fusion summoned her war hammer and tried to "elegantly" smash Steven and Connie. The two tweens fused into Stevonnie, who expertly parried her attacks with chur sword, slipped between her legs, and yanked the hammer out from behind, the head of the hammer whacking Sardonyx in the gut and causing her to defuse.

"Was fusing really necessary?" a bruised Pearl asked.

"There could be robots of that size," a not-bruised Garnet replied.

Stevonnie defused. "We beat a fusion!" chur components sang, doing a victory dance.

"Ooh, Sardy won't hear the end of that one," Rhodocrosite snickered before she defused.

"So this is what we've been missing," Diopside said. "Why didn't anyone tell us there would be a training session? I coulda been whacking Peridot on the head with my club right now."

"Whack me and you'll find a javelin in your chest," Peridot snarled.

"That seems a bit harsh," Lapis said.

"Not really," Amethyst replied. "Diopside's club _really_ hurts. Must be a diopside thing."

"We need to focus, guys," Rose said sternly. "Normally, I wouldn't mind this banter, but troops of the Diamond Triad could be here _at any minute_ , so we need to be prepared."

There was a loud rumbling noise.

"Speak of the devilline, here they come now," Diopside said, fear in her voice, as a large, massive white hand-shaped ship came from the sky. A ship far larger than Obsidian's or Peridot's, streamlined and menacing.

It landed in the field. Out of its palm came a purple figure; she was an amethyst, like Amethyst, only fully-formed and thus six feet tall rather than four-and-a-half, more muscular and lean. Her uniform was dark purple, with a white diamond in the center.

"Lady White Diamond, this is Amethyst #35194. I have located the rebels, all but the four who used to be components of Quadruple-shard Fusion Experiment #19, AKA Cluster 19," the amethyst said into a communicator on her wrist.

"We'll come back for the Cluster Gems later," a voice came from the other end. "Rose Quartz, the defective pearl, the garnet, the premature Gem of your type, the hybrid, and the others take priority."

"There's a human female here too. What should I do with her?" the amethyst asked, referring to Connie.

"Take her as well. This will be a perfect opportunity to check our old theories on human anatomy."

"If you say so." The transmission ended.

"The Diamonds weren't so sure about sending a Gem down of the same type as one of the rebels," the amethyst sneered. "But I told them 'the one they have is a runt', and that's how I ended up here. Besides... _someone_ has to control the ambers and pearls." She snapped her fingers.

Four pearls, like Pearl only dressed in dark cyan uniforms with white diamonds on their chests, and four golden-brown Gems with round stones on their foreheads - ambers - came out of the ship, each carrying a destabilizer, much shorter than the ones the Crystal Gems were familiar with.

Each and every one of the Crystal Gems summoned their weapons. As an added precaution, Pearl and Amethyst rapidly fused into Opal, and Peridot and Lapis into Turquoise.

"Cut it out with the fusion chromium, would ya?" the amethyst asked crossly.

"Chromium?" Steven asked Connie.

"I think they use it as their word for 'crap'," Connie explained.

Opal, meanwhile, summoned her bow and let out an energy arrow, forcing two of the pearls back into their gems. The amethyst nodded to one of the remaining pearls, who summoned her own spear and, attaching her destabilizer to the end of it, she fired a blast of energy, hitting Opal in Pearl's gem. Opal defused, and while Amethyst ended up okay, Pearl had been sent back into her gem. The pearl who had her spear out nonchalantly picked up Pearl's gem and carried it back to the ship.

"Garnet! Fuse with me," Amethyst exclaimed.

Garnet nodded sullenly. They fused, and Sugilite (who did not have her fifth eye due to Garnet having two now) tried to smash the amethyst with her flail. The amethyst sidestepped each blow, and the other remaining pearl did the same thing her companion had, sending out two jolts of destabilizing energy that hit Amethyst's and Sapphire's gems. Sugilite defused, with Ruby the only one of her components left standing.

"Class-R Gem destabilizers," the amethyst explained to the horrified red Gem. "If you hit one of the gems of a fusion with it, only the Gem who the stone belongs to gets destabilized. Makes it a bit edgier, don't you think?"

Rose put her hand on Ruby's shoulder. "I think this is what Sapphire predicted about needing to fuse individually."

"Right..."

They fused, summoning an enraged Red Quartz, who drew out her iron fan from her gems and began to attack the advancing ambers and pearls. She did a double-leg-kick with her front set of legs, rearing up on her rear set to do so, knocking down two of the ambers. The amethyst pulled out a more familiar-looking destabilizer and zapped Red Quartz with it, reducing her to her gems.

"Of course, you really can't beat Class-F destabilizers," the amethyst said. Noticing that Turquoise had been trying to manipulate enough water in the plants to get them to move, she destabilized her too.

Diopside summoned her club. "Ban-ZAI!" she hollered, jumping into the air and whacking an amber with her club. The amber was immediately reduced to her gem.

"Amethyst wasn't kidding when she said getting whacked with this thing hurt," Diopside grinned. Then she got a pained look on her face and was reduced to her gem, having been destabilized by another amber.

The amethyst nodded to the amber who had destabilized Diopside. Pulling out a staff from her gem, the amber whacked Steven and Connie on the head, knocking them out.

The amethyst smiled evilly. "They never had a chance," she said, while the ambers and pearls collected the gems of their comrades and captives and dragged the kids onto the ship.


	11. Destination Reached

When Steven came to, he saw that he was in one of the holding cells of the great white hand-ship. There was an energy field to prevent Gems from escaping. Steven, being half-human, perked up; he could slip through the fields and only get slurred speech and jittery nerves. Then he became downhearted when he noticed the iron bars in front of the field, evidently there to combat his human half.

"Well, this is it," he heard Connie say from the cell across from him. This cell had only iron bars, as Connie, being a full human, would not be affected by the fields at all. "We're Homeworld bound, and the Diamonds have won."

"You know, maybe the Diamonds have good inside and they don't know it yet," Steven said.

Connie smiled. "I've heard rose quartz stones were once thought to represent love and compassion. You certainly live up to that, even more so than your mom."

 _Thump._

An amber came to the spot where the cells were. She opened them, cuffed Steven and Connie, and led them out of the ship, which had landed in the twilight zone of Homeworld, a few hundred feet beyond the Diamond Castle.

"Amber #985280 reporting for duty," the amber spoke to the amethyst (who Steven, in his mind, decided to call "Big Amy" for the sake of clarity).

"Excellent," Big Amy replied. "White Diamond might promote me for this."

"Don't get your hopes up," Diopside scoffed. She, along with the other Crystal Gems, was cuffed and held at destabilizerpoint by the "normal" pearls.

"Permission to summon troops?" Big Amy said into her wrist communicator.

"Permission granted. The Crystal Gems must be put under maximum security," White Diamond said from the other end.

A multicolored assortment of single Gems of many types came marching onto the field.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the corridor connecting Yellow Diamond's castle to White's, Emerald was standing around waiting for his next order. A topaz, orange and with her reverse-teardrop-shaped gem located on her forehead walked into the hall, wearing a uniform signifying her allegiance to Blue Diamond.

"What's going on?" Emerald asked her.

"White Diamond called for her troops to help with something. I wasn't told 'cause I work for a different one of the Triad," Topaz replied.

"Well, this hallway _has_ windows," Emerald replied. The two Gems looked out the nearest one, to see the advancing troop surrounding...the Crystal Gems?

"They got them," Topaz said in awe. "They finally got them." She looked at Emerald.

"They won't have 'em for long," he replied.

"What do you mean? I see seven Gems and two humans that make up the Crystal Gems. There's about fifty of our soldiers in that troop for each one of the rebels."

"I'm gonna help them. I didn't join the rebellion when I had the chance, but now I've got another."

"But-"

"The only buts around here are going to be the ones I'm kicking." He took off, zipping at the speed of sound (emeralds have superspeed).

"I tried to warn him," Topaz said to herself.

* * *

Meanwhile, the troop moved on very slowly. Peridot was shaking in her boots, and behind Garnet's sunglasses the fusion's eyes were full of sadness and terror.

"Guys," Pearl whispered. "Let's make Agate. We need to get the troop off our backs. But we need to make it not stand out."

"I hate it when you're right," Amethyst said in response to Pearl's ensuing smug face.

Rose started the plan by making it seem like she had tripped over her dress, knocking Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl over in the process. Big Amy turned around just as they fused.

Agate was an eighty-foot-tall fusion. Eight arms, four legs, and an entire second face attached to her first one. She was milky white in color, with stripes of dark red, light purple, pink, and vibrant orange all over her body. Her hair also shared this color scheme, in the forms of multicolored strands.

She summoned her weapon, an arm-mounted ballista, and readied it.

"Really?" Big Amy asked.

Suddenly, a green blur flew by, sending a few citrines and heliodors back to their gems.

"What the-" Big Amy started.

The blur zipped around again, dispatching more and more Gems: amazonites, bixbyites, even a jasper got downed. Big Amy summoned her whip...and then was shocked to find a bright green machete sticking out of her chest. She was reduced to her gem.

"I never liked that birthstone," a lean and lanky green Gem said.

"A dude Gem!" Steven exclaimed. "And you're on our side!"

"Emerald," Agate said, in a deep, baritone, female voice. "I thought you wouldn't join the Crystal Gems."

"I didn't want the Diamonds to hurt the Gems I loved," Emerald responded. "If I rebelled, then they certainly would do that. So I've been a secret sympathizer the whole time."

"Ah."

Emerald turned around to see Diopside. "Di!" he exclaimed.

"Emerald!" Diopside crooned. She zipped over and planted her lips firmly onto his mouth.

Agate, being one part Pearl and another part Rose, maternally covered Steven and Connie's eyes.

"Di...there are people watching," Emerald said once pulling out of the kiss.

"Don't care!" Diopside said happily. She proceeded to make out with him.

"Ew," Lapis said as Diopside slid her hands onto Emerald's butt.

A flash of light, and out came a green fusion, chur gems of a shade intermediate between those of chur components. Not much taller than Emerald, almost Garnet's size, wearing a military-style uniform.

"Dioptase is back!" che said happily.

"Wow, a new fusion," Connie said.

"Not really. I've existed for like, six thousand of your years," Dioptase replied. "And I'm dual-gender, like your fusion Stevonnie, so I get to use my own set of pronouns."

Connie looked at Steven.

"Fusions go somewhere we can't see when they aren't fused," Steven explained to his friend. "Rainbow Quartz told me."

"Oh."

Summoning a morning star from chur gems, Dioptase said, "Let's kick some arsenic. We're gonna need Turquoise, too, by the way."

Peridot looked at Lapis, who smiled at her. "It'll be great, Peridot. I'm fine as long as you're right here."

Peridot blushed a little. "Me too."

They fused, creating the teal fusion. Summoning her net, Turquoise scooped up a couple enemy Gems and tossed them over to Dioptase, who whacked them into the next timezone with chur morning star. Agate, meanwhile, showed her prowess at her ballista, shooting down small hovercraft that some of the commanders of the rebel Gems rode on. And as Steven found out, Agate could summon any of the weapons of her components, even those of the fusions her components had made with each other.

The army soon lay utterly defeated. The fusions defused (again, save Garnet) and cheered.

"Aw man, Connie and I couldn't get to do anything," Steven whined.

"There were too many for you to be able to handle them," Rose apologized. "Maybe you can help sometime soon."

"ROSE QUARTZ 1000!" the angry voice of White Diamond pierced the air.

"Like now!" Diopside exclaimed.

Steven spotted a door at the base of White Diamond's building. "This way!" he said.

Everyone in the Crystal Gems rushed to it.

* * *

They found themselves in a mysterious room, dim except for one light that shone on a tall marble pedestal. Hovering above the pedestal was a dark yellow bubble, and inside of it was a crimson gem shaped like an oblique irregular octagonal pyramid.

"That's a weird-looking ruby," Steven said.

"That's no ruby," Garnet said, lifting her left hand to show Ruby's gem in her palm.

Peridot's eyes widened. "It's...it's the red diamond of lore! _He's real_!"

"Told ya," Lapis smirked.

"But...why is the gem bubbled?" Amethyst asked.

"Stop!" came a voice. The group turned around to see White Diamond herself. "Whatever you do, do NOT touch that pedestal! Now, come with me like a good bunch of traitors...wait, that's an oxymoron..."

Emerald sneezed, sending his thin frame into the pedestal. The bubble was knocked loose, and fell to the floor.

"What did I just say?!" White Diamond hissed.

The bubble stopped falling and popped. The red diamond clattered to the ground. Light came from it, creating a figure that was so large it was at eye level with Opal, Rainbow Quartz, or Rhodocrosite.

Everyone stood in awe, as a voice boomed from the emerging figure.

"I'M FREE!"

* * *

 **AN: Agate is the temple fusion. Emerald's weapon is a machete because most emeralds are mined in Columbia.  
**


	12. Return of the Emperor

Red Diamond, having finished forming, landed feet first, causing the room he was in to shake. The Gems got a good look at the massive being: ten-foot-four, scarlet hair in a scraggly hairstyle like Elvis', gem on his left elbow. He wore a uniform similar to those allied with the Diamond Triad; however, the rhombus-shaped clasp on his uniform was composed of two different-colored triangles: the one on the left was crimson, the one on the right was grassy-green, and they overlapped a bit in the middle, creating a thin brown stripe.

White Diamond tried to back out before Red Diamond could see her. That failed.

"White Diamond 271," Red Diamond boomed.

White Diamond turned around nervously.

"You have ruined all that the Gempire stood for, you and your treacherous sisters. I should have you imprisoned for what you've done."

"But...we made the Gempire great," White Diamond said timidly.

"Great? You call destroying innocent civilizations on thousands of peaceful planets 'great'?! When I unified the countries of Petra, I envisioned an empire that would earn a reputation for helping other sentient species out of the dark. And look what you've done."

"Why do you care? They're just carbon-based goop."

"If it weren't for carbon-based 'goop' creating the original four Gems four hundred thousand years ago, we would not _exist_." Red Diamond paused, then added, "And by our calculations, humans don't have much time left before their extinction, so we need to make the most of what time we have. Earth is a wondrous place; you've never even BEEN there, so how would you know that killing all its ecosystems is right?"

White Diamond trembled. "W-what do you..."

"I want you to go to your sisters and tell them that Emperor Red Diamond #1 has returned to reclaim the throne," he said. "Now, go."

White Diamond ran away as fast as she could.

Red Diamond turned to the Crystal Gems. "Ah, you lucky people. I pity you, Gems doing what's right, yet said to be utterly wrong."

"How do you know about us?" Rose asked.

"I have the power to enter one's memories, either when I am asleep or in my gem. I have used that to watch over you for millennia."

"Well, that's nice and all, but how are we going to defeat the Diamond Triad?" Peridot asked.

"Blue Diamond has a dungeon underneath her castle where prisoners of the rebellion are kept. Diopside, use your geokinesis to create an underground tunnel leading to it. It'll be safer than leaving this room."

Diopside obeyed. She moved her hands to the sides, and a twelve-foot-tall winding tunnel was created. The group entered and began the descent to the dungeon.

* * *

As they walked, Steven asked, "So Red Diamond, are you really the only one of your type?"

"Yup. To date, all the attempts at creating other ones have failed."

"So...what's this about being the emperor?"

Red Diamond sighed. "When I was young, I decided to unite all the countries of this planet, back then known as Petra. I became the Emperor of the Gem Empire, or Gemperor of the Gempire." He chuckled at his pun. "It was great. I ruled everyone fairly and equally, married a beautiful and wise female Gem, and no one complained."

"But what happened?"

"Twenty thousand of your years ago, and two hundred thousand of mine, I heard reports of a citrine becoming transformed into a beast. I found the poor girl, reduced to feral instincts, the shape of her gem itself becoming changed. I called on three Rose Quartz sisters, wonderful Gems they were, and we tried to heal the citrine. We couldn't."

"I healed Diopside, and she used to be corrupted."

"You're half-human. Your biology magnifies your healing powers. We couldn't cure the citrine, but soon enough she returned to her original state. It was very confusing.

"I left, trying to figure out what in heliodor had happened, when I had the misfortune of falling into a ravine and having to regenerate. But before I could leave my gem, everything went dark. Using my power of thought projection, I discovered that Yellow Diamond 299 - then just a member of my court - had bubbled me; she and her sisters Blue Diamond 250 and White Diamond 271 were staging a coup. My gem was hidden in that room you found me in, and I became a figure of legend alone."

"How? Surely people would remember you," Connie said.

"Not if Blue Diamond erased their memories of me and my wife," Red Diamond replied. "My wife was somehow immune to Blue Diamond's power, so she was imprisoned somewhere in Blue Diamond's dungeon; Blue Diamond and her sisters still remember me, obviously. And then the Diamond Sisters conquered their first planet beyond our native one, and Petra's true name became forgotten."

"I had no idea that the Diamonds did that," Garnet said.

"Your components were born long after that coup. Of course you wouldn't know."

"Why would they do such a thing?" Lapis asked.

"Some say the Diamond Sisters were abused when they were young, and it could be they took over to make their old tormentors feel how they did. If so, they went too far. Organic Gems were reduced to mindless servants, fusion became taboo, emotion was not tolerated, and this planet became what you know and see today."

They arrived at the dungeon, a wall in their way. Garnet summoned her gauntlets and brought down the wall with a single punch. The prisoners looked at the sight of the Gems in shock.

"Hello, comrades," Red Diamond said. "In case you are wondering, I am indeed the Red Diamond Gem of lore. I am real. It's a long story. But," he continued, "we will not stand for the tyranny of the Diamond Sisters any longer. You will now be FREED!" And with that, Red Diamond summoned his metal arm covering and slammed his left arm on the barrier generator, smashing it. The fields preventing the Gems inside from fleeing disappeared.

"You two," Rose said, looking at Steven and Connie, "make sure there's no one in the security room at the end of the hall."

"If you need to," Diopside said, "go Stevonnie on them."

"Yay! We get to do something!" Steven exclaimed. He and Connie rushed to the end of the hall and went into the closet.

* * *

Not seeing anybody in the room, Steven began to leave. Connie stopped him and showed him a door she had found hidden in the wall. Opening it, she and Steven descended down the staircase and found a large Gem trapped behind a barrier. The two kids fused into Stevonnie, who put churself into the field, creating a hole large enough for the prisoner to escape through.

On noticing it, the prisoner squeezed through. "Thank you," the Gem said to the fusion.

Stevonnie, once che stopped shaking, defused. "Hi!" Steven said. "I'm Steven, and this is Connie."

"Green Diamond 15," Green Diamond replied.

"We came to free you and fight the Diamond Sisters," Connie explained.

"Excellent. I'll give those birthstones what's coming for them," she said, cracking her back.

Steven looked at Connie.

"I think they use 'birthstone' as a swear word," Connie told him.

"Oh...they must use it as the 'b' word."

"How do you even know that word?"

"Ronaldo said it in one of his videos."

Then they saw Green Diamond making her way up the stairs. "We should probably go," Connie said.

Following the massive Gem, they made their way up to the landing, and noticed the doorway was too short for Green Diamond to fit through. "Oh man, we're stuck," Steven groaned.

"Not for long," Green Diamond said. Her gem glowed, and soon a metal arm covering enveloped her right arm. She smashed the wall, making the doorway tall enough for her, and swaggered forward, doing the same to the doorway to the closet.

"Remind me to never make her angry," Steven said.

* * *

Green Diamond absolutely towered above the other Gems, save for Red Diamond, who she eventually found, encouraging Gems to get behind him should a guard come to the dungeon.

"Artie?" she asked, looking at him. (FYI, "Artie" is RD and "Judy" is GD said really fast).

Red Diamond smiled. "Judy," he said. "My wife."

They embraced.

"I thought I would never see you again," she said, crying tears of happiness.

"I used my power to check on you all the time," he said, nuzzling her cheek. "I couldn't bear to see you downtrodden."

The couple looked at the others in the room.

"By the way, we're going to fuse right now, so if you don't mind getting somewhere safe..." Red Diamond trailed off.

"Why? Because your fusion is temperamental?" Pearl asked.

"No," Green Diamond explained. "Brown Diamond is the largest Tier 1 fusion to ever exist."

She and Red Diamond became enveloped in light.


	13. Spared

"Really, Blue, you ought to consider getting a sentinel robonoid," Yellow Diamond was saying. She was in Blue Diamond's quarters, which was a blue-toned version of her own. "You can check on your enemies _far_ more easily. It's worked for me."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" someone screamed. Yellow and Blue Diamond turned around as White Diamond burst through the door.

"The rebels!" she panted.

"What about them?" Blue Diamond asked.

"They defeated my soldiers! YD, that emerald who works for you joined them!"

"Oh my gem..." Yellow Diamond said.

"And not only that, Red Diamond's regenerated!"

"Ah, shale," Blue Diamond groaned.

"At least he has not found his wife and fused with her," Yellow Diamond said.

The ground shook. A large coffee-colored hand burst from the floor.

"Why did I say that?" Yellow Diamond said, facepalming.

Another hand burst from the floor. Then the massive fusion pulled churself through the floor, and stepped up onto what was left of it.

Brown Diamond was a massive fusion. Twenty-six feet tall, with brown-colored...everything. Chur gems were on the lower arms just before the elbows, resembling spikes. Summoning chur arm coverings, the fusion slammed chur palms together.

"You three," Brown Diamond said, in an ominous and deep voice combining those of Red Diamond and Green Diamond. "You have tarnished the reputation of the Gempire of the planet Petra. Turning a peaceful dynasty into a totalitarian regime. Rendering almost seven thousand planets uninhabitable. Murdering millions of Gems because they did not fit an arbitrary standard. For all these horrendous crimes, you will pay the ultimate price!"

Brown Diamond leaned forward, ready to smash Yellow Diamond's gem; considering that diamonds are one giant crystal and thus incredibly brittle, shattering her gem would have been very easy to do. But a voice interrupted chur before che could kill Yellow Diamond.

"Stop!" Steven said.

Brown Diamond turned around to see Steven far below in Blue Diamond's dungeon. Diopside used her powers to create a stairway of rock leading up. Steven clambered up the stairs and put himself in front of the Diamond Triad.

"If you kill them, you'll be just as bad as they are!" Steven said.

Brown Diamond paused in thought. Steven turned to the other three diamonds and said, "Have you ever been to any of the planets you've taken over?"

"No," all three Gems said in unison. The rest of the Crystal Gems had started coming up now.

"Well, then you have no idea what you've been missing. If you knew what Earth was like, maybe you'd change your minds."

"How are we going to do that?" Rose asked. "We don't have the time needed to take them to Earth, and it's far too dangerous to do that anyway."

"I know. So I came prepared." Steven reached into the pocket dimension inside his mother's hair and pulled out a few DVDs.

"Nature documentaries?! You put _nature documentaries_ in there?!" Pearl exclaimed.

"Yep. Just in case. Peridot, find something like a TV or something."

"There's a projector built into this throne," Peridot said.

"Great! We'll use that."

* * *

 **Six hour-long documentaries later...  
**

"Now you get the gist of it," Steven said. "There's a lot more to Earth than you saw, but..."

"Would...would all this intricacy, all these majestic creatures be...destroyed if we continued with our plans?" White Diamond asked.

"By the looks of it, you've killed quite a lot of them already," Connie said.

Steven looked at the three diamonds. "You know, I don't think you're evil," he said. "You're just...misguided. You've been looking for respect because you never got any. And then you tried to scare everyone into treating you better. But respect has to be earned, by doing things like Red Diamond or Mom have done. That's what love is."

Yellow Diamond surprised the boy by hugging him, and she began to cry. Her sisters followed suit.

"It was horrible," Yellow Diamond sobbed. "Nobody liked us when we were little. We...we took over the Gempire so no one could make fun of us anymore."

"But...why did you take over all those planets?"

"Because Gems used to be able to reproduce like humans do, Steven," White Diamond sniffed. "Our parents were horrifically abusive. We wanted to spare everyone from that, so Blue erased everyone else's memory of being able to conceive. But we couldn't sustain the population without reproducing, so we took over our first planet and made the first kindergarten..."

Brown Diamond defused. Red Diamond and Green Diamond approached the Diamond Sisters.

"We are sorry if we have mistreated you without intention," Green Diamond said. "You should have just told us about your self-esteem issues and this mess would have never happened."

"Reminds me of Pearl," Garnet commented. "The Sardonyx incident would have never occurred had she just told me she felt bad."

"The what?" Diopside asked.

"Long story."

"Well, we still have to punish you," Red Diamond said to the smaller diamonds.

The three sisters looked up.

"Yellow Diamond, you are to go to Earth and restore the corrupted Gems to their original state. Blue Diamond, you are to restore the memories of the Gems who have survived from our time. White Diamond? For honesty's sake, get rid of this bloody caste system and restore the organic Gems to their normal state, thank you very much."

"We accept our punishment," Yellow Diamond said somberly.

"I can't believe it," Amethyst said. "It was that easy to get them off our backs?"

"That," Rose said, "is the power of Steven. Even I wouldn't have thought of just talking to them like he did."

"He's half-human," Garnet said. "He has the compassion of a rose quartz Gem and a human combined. He is _truly_ amazing." She pulled down her sunglasses to reveal she had gone starry-eyed.

"Yay! The whole thing's over!" Steven exclaimed.

"We still have to get home," Pearl said.

"Oh yeah..."


	14. Cured Cluster

The small, red, left-handed hand-ship zipped off into space. Inside it were the Crystal Gems, along with Yellow Diamond, who was using the opportunity to go to Earth and start curing the corrupted Gems.

* * *

"It was really lucky we found that wormhole," Garnet said. "Otherwise it would take days for us to return."

"How long were we gone?" Steven asked.

"Judging by my calculations, about ten hours," Peridot said. "The white ship that took us to Homeworld must've gone through the same wormhole."

A loud beeping noise filled the inside of the ship.

"We're going down rough! We're going down rough!" Emerald yelped.

The ship trembled, sending everyone flying as it bumped through the atmosphere.

Peridot landed on top of Lapis.

"Peri?" Lapis asked, on noticing the olivine's blush.

Peridot decided that now was as good a time as any. "Lapis, we probably won't make it out alive. So I was wondering...would you like to be Turquoise one last time? The way Ruby and Sapphire are Garnet?"

Lapis looked at Peridot.

"You...love me?"

Peridot nodded weakly.

"I love you, too," Lapis said, blushing.

Peridot's eyes widened. Lapis smirked and glomped her new girlfriend. A flash of light, and Turquoise was formed. The fusion braced herself for what could be her components' final few seconds.

* * *

 _Thud._

The ship impacted something. Turquoise opened all four of her eyes to see everyone was fully intact.

"What just happened?" Amethyst asked.

Something opened the roof of the ship. A large, silvery-gray hand scooped up everyone inside, took them out, and set them down.

The hand belonged to a fifty-seven-foot fusion, light gray in color. She had shoulder-length hair that was pulled up a bit with a clip in the back, a plain gray uniform, and four eyes, each iris a different color. She had a circular gem on her chest, another on her upper back, a square gem above her navel, and a triangular gem in it.

The fusion set down the hand-ship on the beach.

"Who...are you?" Diopside asked.

"I," the fusion said, "am Cluster." She defused, revealing Heliodor, Zircon, Amazonite, and Red Beryl.

"The Cluster is healthy?" Turquoise asked, defusing.

"Yep," Amazonite said. "When we found out you were missing and saw the giant handprint, we figured Homeworld had gotten you."

"So when we saw your ship on a collision course with the beach, we figured that we should fuse. Normally, this time," Heliodor added.

Rose smiled.

"Hey, what's Yellow Diamond doing here?" Zircon asked.

"Punishment. Long story," Garnet said.

"I got a girlfriend," Lapis said, smooching Peridot's cheek.

"I guess the time came," Red Beryl said to herself, watching Peridot blush with embarrassment.

The End.

* * *

 **AN: Coming soon...the bloopers!  
**


	15. Homeworld Bound: Bloopers! :P

**AN: My dialogue will be in bold.**

 **Just so you know, I am a furry. Specifically, a highly-anthropomorphized _Brachiosaurus_. My studio, Nerdinator Studios, where my fanfictions are produced by the actual characters in the show, is staffed by other dinosaur furries. Read my profile for more info.**

 **Also, in my universe, making fanfictions is a profitable business venture, and chapters are delivered to subscribers like newspapers are.**

* * *

Greg opened the front door. "Onion?"

Onion stared blankly at him.

 **"CUT!"**

* * *

Greg opened the front door. "Rose?"

"Happy birthday, Steven!" Rose exclaimed.

Steven and Amethyst began laughing.

 **"CUT! Very funny, Rose."**

* * *

Garnet's entire body began to glow. Then it suddenly stopped. The fusion pulled down her sunglasses, revealing a confused look in her eyes.

 **"CUT! Special effects!"**

* * *

Garnet spoke, in a voice that was a combination of her's, Ruby's, and Sapphire's:

 _Old foes liberated. Old foes redeemed._

 _Oldallyshoo -  
_

She stopped.

"Gesundheit," Greg said.

Everyone began laughing.

 **"CUT!"**

* * *

Greg left to return to his van, but slipped on the ice Sapphire had created.

 **"CUT!"**

"Medic!" Morgana, the _Stegoceras_ furry who directs my Steven Universe fanfics, called to the stagehands.

* * *

"Preposterous," Jasper said. "Gems can't reproduwaleahloa-"

Lapis and Malachite began cracking up.

 **"CUT!"**

* * *

Peridot began walking out of the forest, only to trip over a root. She poofed.

 **"CUT! You okay, Peridot?"**

"I'll let you know once my nose is healed," Peridot called from inside her gem.

* * *

"I got it...I got it..." Amethyst said as she ran after the frisbee.

She caught it.

"Wait, wasn't I supposed to not catch it?" she asked.

 **"CUT! And to answer your question, yes."**

* * *

Malachite summoned Jasper's helmet and Lapis' wings of water, combining them into a pair of demonic-looking wings lined with razor-sharp shards of pure malachite.

Three of the shards fell off.

 **"CUT! Wardrobe, can we fix that?"**

* * *

Steven came back in a bubble, which he popped. In his right hand was...a tuning fork?

"Oops," Steven said.

Peridot began laughing.

 **"CUT!"**

* * *

"Nyeeeeeeeeeah!" Peridot said, pulling down her lower left eyelid with her left hand and sticking out her tongue.

"My student has learned well," Steven said.

Malachite fell over laughing.

 **"CUT!"**

* * *

"Status update on planet WT-47...9...what was my line again?" Yellow Diamond asked.

Emerald and Obsidian walked into the scene, cracking up.

 **"CUT!"**

* * *

"Yes, you have to, or so help me I will crush your gem and use its remains as bath salt!" Yellow Diamond growled.

"Bath salt? Why bath salt, of all things? Do we even NEED to bathe?" Emerald asked through the screen.

Yellow Diamond facepalmed.

 **"CUT!"**

* * *

"Have the Gems been giving you proper nutrition?" Rose asked.

"Mom, when Rebecca Sugar created me, she designed me as a short lardball," Steven replied.

"Well that's weird," Amethyst said, suddenly appearing inside Rose's gem. "Why do TV shows keep drawing kids just before they become teenagers so ridiculously short?"

 **"CUT!"**

* * *

Steven strutted forward, completely missing the table.

 **"CUT!"**

* * *

Steven strutted forward, walking right into the table. The table's top hit him in the gut.

"Steven!" Pearl exclaimed.

 **"CUT!"**

"Medic! Again!" Morgana called.

* * *

"AUGH!" Lapis exclaimed. She got tangled up in the blanket and fell off the couch.

"Aw crap, I think I cracked my gem again," Lapis groaned.

 **"CUT!"**

"We should just hire a medic for this show," Morgana groaned.

* * *

Azurite stretched an arm made of water across the room. Steven pulled out a straw, stuck it into the arm, and began to drink it.

"This is really weird," Azurite said, an uncomfortable look on her face.

 **"CUT! Steven, try not to drink the cast."**

"Maybe I should have gotten some durian juice from the fridge," Steven said.

* * *

Obsidian got out of her ship. She fell through the ground.

 **"CUT! Okay, who put the quicksand there?"**

* * *

The robonoid kicked Alexandrite into the temple with two of its legs. She crashed through the temple's wall.

 **"CUT!"**

"That was _not_ supposed to happen," Alexandrite grunted.

* * *

The Centipeetle Mother started to run down the stairs, only to trip and fall down the steps.

 **"CUT!"**

"Okay, we really need a medic," Morgana said.

 **"Steven's healing powers will come back in the next scene."**

"Oh. Good."

* * *

"You are such a dork," Lapis said. She tackled Peridot and began making out with her.

Pearl suddenly appeared (in the same scene as Alexandrite) and covered Steven's eyes.

 **"CUT! Lapis, try to contain yourself."**

* * *

A flash of light, and a humanoid shape came out of the gem.

It was Rose.

"Since when was your gem green?" Steven asked.

Diopside came into the scene laughing.

 **"CUT!"**

* * *

Obsidian picked Steven up by his shirt. The shirt ripped, and Steven fell out, shirtless.

Connie wolf-whistled from offstage.

 **"CUT!"**

* * *

Blue Diamond descended down the stairs leading to Green Diamond's cell. She tripped and fell down the stairs.

 **"CUT! Steven, we need you."**

* * *

Rhodocrosite fired a quartz-tipped arrow at the robonoid. It bounced off it and hit a seagull, killing it. The seagull fell onto the ground.

 **"CUT!"**

* * *

Rainbow Quartz summoned her battleaxe and swung it behind her. She got a pained look on her face, dropped her axe, and clutched her arm.

"I think I pulled something," she said.

 **"CUT!"**

* * *

"A-are you sure?" Peridot asked. "She's nearly four Earth miblennia...wait, what?"

Red Beryl and Diopside began laughing.

 **"CUT!"**

* * *

The amber whacked Steven and Connie on the head with her staff. The staff broke.

 **"CUT!"**

* * *

Agate stood up, ready to summon her ballista, but tripped over a Gem and fell over.

 **"CUT!"**

* * *

Emerald sneezed, sending his thin frame into the pedestal. The pedestal fell over, smashing into little bits.

 **"CUT! Be careful with that pedestal, Emerald. Marble is pretty expensive."**

"I thought you drew that with The Cartoonist's Pen," he said.

 **"Oh, right," I said, looking at my purple cosmic stylus. (The Cartoonist's Pen works like Harold's purple crayon. It draws things in midair that come to life).**

* * *

White Diamond began to run away, but tripped over a stray labradorite.

 **"CUT!"**

* * *

Red Diamond summoned his metal arm covering and slammed it against the field generator.

Nothing happened.

 **"CUT!"**

* * *

Green Diamond tried to walk through the doorway, but forgot to smash its top and make it larger with her arm covering. She wound up hitting her head.

"Owww..." she winced.

 **"CUT! Someone get her an ice pack."**

* * *

The ground shook. There was a loud _THUMP_. The floor bulged up a little.

"Ow!" Brown Diamond exclaimed from underneath the floor.

 **"CUT!"**

* * *

"I," Cluster said, "am Cluster."

She defused, her components falling onto the ground.

 **"CUT!"**

* * *

 **AN: And that's all, folks. See you next fanfic! ~T. Nerdinator.  
**


End file.
